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Star investigator may be threatened by Cook County cuts

Public defender's employee was named nation's top investigator 2 years ago for helping to free man wrongly imprisoned for murder

Friday, February 25, 2011Chicago Tribuneby Andy Grimm

Two years ago, Noel Zupancic was named the nation's top investigator for
her work on the case that freed Alton Logan after he had served 26
years in prison for a murder he did not commit. In a few weeks, Zupancic
could be out of a job.

The Cook County public defender's office has been targeted for a 10 percent budget cut as County Board President Toni Preckwinkle
tries to close a $487 million deficit. The office said the proposed cut
means half of the 200 investigators and other support staff in the
office, including 17-year veteran Zupancic, have gotten notice they will
be laid off if the budget passes as is.

Investigators like Zupancic play an integral role in the work of the
office. Zupancic spent years tracking down reluctant witnesses, serving
subpoenas and even cajoled a McDonald's corporate employee to turn over the floor plans of the restaurant where the murder took place.

No one knows that better than Logan — Zupancic was the first person he
called when he walked out of the Cook County Courthouse in 2008 a free
man.

"I had my family there, and I
expected her to be there too. But she wasn't so I had to call her first
thing," Logan said this week.

Logan last week spoke at a public hearingbefore the County Board Finance Committee on behalf of the public defender's office.

"It was all I could do. You have to help out the people who have done right by you," he said.

Zupancic's plight and Logan's story highlight the conundrum county
officials face as they try to cut payroll without reducing services.
Negotiations are ongoing with county and union leaders. The board's
Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on the budget Friday, and the
full board has a budget vote on its agenda. The deadline for the board
to approve a budget is midnight Monday. As many as 1,750 jobs could be
on the line.

The public defender's office represents 90 percent of the defendants in
the Cook County criminal courts, clients who have no where else to turn.
Cook County, like court systems across the country, is constitutionally
required to provide adequate legal defense for the indigent.

What counts as "adequate" is often undefined until a public defender's
office is so overburdened that a class-action lawsuit is filed against
the municipality, a scenario that is playing out in New York City even
now, said Locke Bowman, an attorney at the MacArthur Justice Center at
Northwestern University.

"(Adequate defense) is a requirement of the Sixth Amendment of the
Constitution," Bowman said. "I don't think this is discretionary
spending. This is the one area where, constitutionally, the county has
to provide funding."

Although he recognizes the perception that the county payroll is
bloated, Patrick Reardon, first deputy public defender, said unlike some
other county departments, the public defender's office can't reduce its
services because it has to represent every eligible defendant facing
charges in criminal courts.

"With the caseloads we have, I would say this isn't an area where we
have a lot of people, as they say, leaning on shovels," Reardon said.

According to the office, staff attorneys in the felony division average
235 cases a year, nearly 60 percent more than the 150 recommended by the
American Bar Association. The numbers are similar for public defenders
who handle juvenile and misdemeanor cases.

Preckwinkle has already compromised with the public defender's office and State's Attorney Anita Alvarez
on the cuts, said Preckwinkle spokeswoman Jessey Neves. The 10 percent
reduction mandated for those offices is less than the 16 percent cut
Preckwinkle mandated for other county departments, and the shift spared
the office from having to lay off any staff attorneys, Reardon said.

Negotiations with labor unions are ongoing, with the possibility of all
county employees taking 10 furlough days to reduce the number that will
need to be cut.

But even with 17 years with the office, Zupancic still faces the
prospect of unemployment. Worse still, she said, clients like Logan
might face the prospect of serving jail time they don't deserve.

"Obviously, Alton's case was not the result we get every time, but we
work just as hard for every client," Zupancic said. "I'll never forget
the day he called me from the courthouse. He just said, 'Girl, I'm
free.'"